I would like to experiment with sculpting. What is a good beginner medium and what materials do I need.?

Question

I think I would like to start with clay but not really pottery. More abstract physical characters such as people. I ordered a good book on the way but want to get started. Where do you get clay from.

Answer 1

Sculpting needs quite diverse knowledge and materials. Basically the operation of transformation = uniting / separating/ -addition /subtraction -manual and technical must be developed. You have to lrean how to use the hands and fingers as well as tools to transform different materials.

Since there are different materials, these condition the kind of skills you can develop: In general you should develop molding skills and cutting skills.

A cheap way of practicing and developing molding is using "plasticine","plastilyn"or similar artificial plastic -synthetic clay which don't need permanent qualities and can be remolded. And hence does not need but initial expense.

As first material for cutting techniques, wood is my first suggestion. Its is a cheap, beautiful, maleable and good material to start with and develop serious sculpting techniques and using more complex tools. You can get also a "how to book" that will show you some basic cuts and movements, uses etc...

And you can practice anywhere just with a small sharp pen knife and a stick.

Once you can cut and understand why and what is important you can pass to other more expensive materials like clay which you have to buy, bake, etc, or to mold, iron and casts etc. Since the basic economic investment for learning and developing rises with the price of tools, and some materials need other operations that need massive systems for casting, baking and cooking etc.


So, unless you know how to weld and you leave near ironworks or I would recommend starting both with Plasticine and Wood, maybe investing some in used tools for carving etc.

Best
SF

Answer 2

Try Sculpey, which is polymer clay. You just need a normal oven. I work with it all the time for jewelry, figurines, stuff like that. If you're making more complicated stuff, I would also get some wire, or aluminum foil to use for the skeleton of the piece, to it's structurally sound.

Answer 3

You didn't specify a medium (clay, marble, metal) I suggest you take a pottery class they would have everything you need. That way if you don't like it you wouldn't have invested a lot of $$

Answer 4

Clay would be good too start with, but you can also work with plaster--You can carve it with a chisel, or you can make a wire framework, apply plaster coated burlap, then cover that with layers of plaster and smooth it down with a Surform scraper or sandpaper.

Answer 5

Clay, you can buy it in most ar shops in a sealed containter, it isn't expensive and extremely easy to work with.